Pop Goes The Pistons

Tonight in Orlando, Chauncey Billups left the game in the first quarter, never to return, with a hamstring problem. His replacement, Rodney Stuckey, played better than expected... but he wasn't able to keep Jameer Nelson from going off early, and Kenyon Dooling from going off late. Combine that with the sudden friendly three-point shooting of Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu, and you have a game where the Magic were never seriously threatened. It's now 2-1 Detroit, and we suddenly have a series.

Well, never let it be said that the Pistons get cheated when they lose. The first playoff win for the Magic in their last 10 games against Detroit was a 25-point laugher, and the lead grew by 21 in the final quarter. The Pistons kept the starters in for most of that, with Rasheed Wallace providing most of the clankage.

If Billups stays out, the Pistons can still win (but just this series). The Magic bigs are foul prone, Stuckey's not a bad player, and if the threes aren't falling, Orlando is an easy out. But the Detroit margin of error goes way down, as do their chances of getting out of the second round with minimal hassle.

For a team with as many playoff miles as the Pistons, that's telling... and there's always the possibility, as in last year's conference finals against the Cavs, that Detroit could give the younger team enough confidence that it goes hard the other way. Game Four just got a lot more interesting.